What is Aragorn’s sword’s name?
Anduril is Aragorn’s sword in the Lord of the Rings. It is a sword reforged from the shards of Narsil, the sword wielded by King Elendil. Aragorn would then give the name Anduril to the reforged sword.
Anduril means “Flame of the West” from one of the languages spoken by the Elves which is Quenya. It is one of the most famous if not the most famous sword in the world of Lord of the Rings because of its origins.
More than Narsil being the sword of a king, it has also made a great contribution during the war of the last alliance. Narsil was the sword that caused the dark lord Sauron to be defeated. However, the sword would not remain in one piece during that battle.
For a very long time, Narsil would remain broken. It would require Sauron’s reemergence for the broken sword to be reforged and become Anduril. If you would like Anduril for yourself, you can get it here at the WB Shop.
What Does Anduril Look Like?
There are debates as to what type of sword the Anduril falls in to. In the films, Anduril could easily be classified as a longsword. However, no official dimensions for the Anduril were released to classify the Anduril as a longsword for certain.
How long is Aragorn’s sword?
A longsword would need to have a straight double-edged blade that would be somewhere around 33 to 43 inches long. It also needs to have a cruciform hilt that is suited for a two-handed grip that measures around 6 to 11 inches.
This is where it gets a bit confusing as Aragorn uses Anduril with only one hand and a shield with another, which is a style used for an arming sword. Despite this, the Anduril could still be considered a long sword, but it would be much more difficult to wield one-handed. This could have been used to emphasize just how strong Aragorn is.
Since Anduril has a long blade, it is reminiscent of a longsword or a greatsword. Its hilt is long enough for a two-handed grip with the upper half having a black color.
What does Aragorn’s sword say?
The edges of the guard and the pommel have the same rounded edge design. It has a long, straight, double-edged blade with inscriptions that translates to “I am Anduril who was Narsil, the sword of Elendil. Let the thralls of Mordor flee me.”
Who forged Aragorn’s sword? When was Aragorn’s sword reforged?
Since Anduril is originally Narsil, we first need to know who forged Narsil. As Narsil was to be the king’s sword, no one else was better qualified for the job than a highly renowned blacksmith.
Telchar, a dwarven smith, was the one who forged Narsil. In the elven language, Quenya, Narsil means “red and white flame”. It was a sword that symbolized both the sun and the moon. It’s light was to be the enemy of darkness.
However, not much is known if the “light” described was symbolic or a power that the sword has within it. Narsil was forged by Telchar during the 1st age. This is important to note as this means the sword would be thousands of years old.
During the second age, Narsil broke when Elendil fought Sauron. But there is something that needs to be answered before we go further. How did Narsil end up in Elendil’s hand? There’s a huge gap between the 1st and the 2nd age.
There are a lot of theories on how Narsil came into the possession of Elendil, but one stood out to us from the rest. Since it was a dwarf that forged Narsil, it would be highly unlikely that they would give the sword to the race of humans. Dwarves didn’t really have dealings with men according to what was written in The Lord of the Ring’s lore.
However, dwarves sometimes mingle with the elves. It is possible that Narsil was given to an elf. There were a lot of elves deserving of the sword and it is hard knowing who among them could have had the sword.
The theory we chose, suggested that it was Gil-galad who had Narsil. There are a lot of events that would support this. Firstly, all elves have a sword to use in combat. All except for one – Gil-galad.
Another is that when Elendil came to middle earth after the destruction of Numenor, it was Gil-galad whom he met and became friends with. Lastly, during the war of the last alliance, Erendil fought side by side with Gil-galad against Sauron.
Instead of having a sword, Gil-galad had a glave named Aeglos. The reason why Gil-galad didn’t make use of a sword would then might have been because he gave it to Erendil. Unfortunately, both met their demise fighting Sauron.
This is when the transition of Narsil becoming Anduril begins. During their fight with Sauron, Narsil broke into several pieces. In the books, Narsil broke into two pieces only. Meanwhile, in the films, Narsil shattered into several pieces.
Narsil remained broken for a long time until it was reforged by the elves of Rivendell. It would then be named Anduril by Aragorn and wielded by him.
What Are the Abilities of Anduril?
Anduril is similar to the Excalibur, King Arthur’s sword, in many ways. For one, Anduril is described to exude light. In fact, with every mention of Anduril in the books, its light would almost always be described after it.
“Very bright was the sword when it was made whole again; the light of the sun shone redly in it, and the light of the moon shone cold, and its edge was hard and keen. And Aragorn gave it a new name and called it Anduril, Flame of the West.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
This description was also given to the Excalibur with some of the versions of its story. But again, it is not known if the light Anduril is described to have is just a symbol of power. Both swords are also owned by kings.
While Anduril was originally Narsil, reforged from its broken pieces, the Excalibur was also a new sword given to Arthur by the lady of the lake after he broke his original one. Both also have a sheath that protects as well.
For the excalibur, its sheath protects its user. Meanwhile, Anduril’s sheath protects its sword from being broken or stained. It is not known if Anduril does possess some power. However, Aragorn mentioned that any man besides himself that draws the sword from its sheath will face death.
With Anduril, its wielder can have an effect on the leader of the Paths of the Dead. This means that with it, Aragorn can ally himself with a very large army of indestructible allies, bound by the sword.
Lastly, the sword struck fear into the hearts of the enemy because it had slain Sauron by the hand of Elendil. This was this way purely because of the reputation of Anduril.
How Was Aragorn Able to Get Anduril in the LOTR?
Anduril was presented to Aragorn when he was at Dunharrow as seen in the first video at the beginning of this post. It was presented to him by Elrond. Along with the sword though, Elrond had grim news. The first one was that his daughter, Arwen, was getting very weak and was drying.
The second one was that a fleet of Corsairs was on their way to Gondor. With the sword Elrond presented to Aragorn, Aragorn made use of Anduril to take the Paths of the Dead. This way, he summoned an army greater than that of the Corsairs.
Aragorn’s Scabbard and Knife
Aragorn’s scabbard was given to him by Galadriel. The scabbard was decorated with golden flowers and leaves. Additionally, it was inlaid with gems and elvish runes.
Aragorn also carried a dagger as well that he used when his sword was not available. If you want the dagger for yourself, you can get it here on Amazon.
What Was Aragorn’s Sword Before Anduril?
Strider (aka Aragorn) was a ranger of the north, but he carried a warriors sword instead of the traditional ranger weaponry. Traditional northern rangers carried smaller swords and also they carried spears as well.
The sword he used before he got Anduril was a long sword that was about 5 feet in length. He used this type of weapon because the elves had an influence in his fighting style as well as the rangers.
Aragorn would carry this sword for the duration of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers.
Aragorn’s Fighting Style
Aragorn’s fighting style made use primarily of his two-handed sword, Anduril, as you would have guessed. J.R.R Tolkein was not a sword user so he didn’t really describe the characters fighting styles. In the movies, Peter Jackson had to provide the most logical fighting style that fit the type of weapons that Aragorn carried. Most of what was used in the movies were taken from medieval martial arts.
In the movies, it was often to Aragorn’s advantage to strike with heavy blows and use the length of his sword to his advantage. This would stagger and keep his opponents at sword length. If enemies got too close or Aragorn found himself in a close range battle and unable to use his sword, he would pull out his hunting knife as a surprise attack.
What happened to Aragorn’s Sword?
Aragorn, from then on, Aragorn would use Anduril as his primary weapon until the end of his days.